In the Sparrow's Nest - Garden Update and Other Nature Miscellany

Jun. 22, 2008

Garden Update and Other Nature Miscellany

Posted in Gardening

The garden has been primarily Alex's responsibility. He loves it! And he has done a great job for his first year.

Potatoes and Zucchini

Zucchini Bloom

Corn

Basil

Carrots

Gabby likes to help too, and big brother has been so kind to let her!

Other Nature things we have been observing:

Mushrooms

Bird's Nest with Eggs in Bushes by Creek

Alex found a wild Black Raspberry Bush! Here he is pointing it out to me with his light saber!

Some were ripe, yum!

Raccoons!

I'm helping to spread seeds around!

After our encounter with the beautiful butterfly a few days ago, Hannah and Alex approached me with drinks and straws turned around and said, "Look Mom, we're drinking with our proboscis!"

And last but not least, a very beautiful sunset...

Peaceful dreams for the end of your weekend and beginning of your new week.

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Comments

Jun. 22, 2008 - Untitled Comment

Posted by homeschoolingmy2

Thanks for the update!

That is a beautiful garden, Alex!!

Love those Proboscis!!

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Jun. 22, 2008 - Untitled Comment

Posted by OldSchoolMarm

I just love those pictures! Aren't mushrooms so cool and what a fantastic job your son is doing with the garden. I've got some pictures I plan on posting later of ours...just love a garden. How's the new pup doing? I'm assuming it's an indoor dog. We won't have an indoor dog until kiddos are grown and then we would like a weimerainner (not sure I spelled that correctly).
BTW, regarding your remark on Aubrey taking the IBST, we aren't required here in Oklahoma to give it, I was just curious about how we're doing.
Blessings, and I've enjoyed my visit as usual :-).

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Jun. 23, 2008 - Untitled Comment

Posted by jenn4him

Things are looking lush in your part of the world! Don't you just love the raised beds? We are eating our lettuce. I was going to plant some green onions. Now I think I only have room for chives. Great photos.
Jenn

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Jun. 23, 2008 - What a beautiful garden!

Posted by seekingHim

And such beautiful pics! Thanks for sharing!
_Jennifer

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Jun. 24, 2008 - Untitled Comment

Posted by rreitsma

What a lovely place you have for nature study! Isn't that zucchini bloom lovely!
I love the proboscis straws - made me laugh :-)

Rachael.

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Jun. 25, 2008 - Oh, yes, the light saber

Posted by MusingMom

My kids would have them with them always were I to let them. Your garden is looking great! Mine is growing green stuff, so maybe I'll actually get edible roots and fruits, LOL.

Kris!

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About Me

Welcome to our blog home! My name is Melissa and I am a homeschool mom of three beautiful blessings ages 11, 9, and 2; and blessed wife to my husband for 15 years. Our homeschooling style is eclectic, but we love Charlotte Mason's educational philosophies and learning the natural, everyday hands-on life way! We especially see daily opportunities to learn and grow closer to God through His amazing creation in nature!

"Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young - a place near your altar, O Lord Almighty, my King and my God." ~Psalm 84:3-4

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Nature Notes

10/7/08

Summer's last reach today, the temperatures got up to 80 degrees. But it didn't feel like it, there's just something still chilly about the air, like a foreshadowing. We're supposed to get a cold front moving through tonight causing rain and much cooler temps. Highs tomorrow only in the 60's, welcome Autumn!!

Nature Walk: Saw a Green Frog sitting down in the creek, new fall wildflowers all over - different kinds of Asters, Wooly Bear Caterpillars - mostly all strawberry red or rusty colored (I wonder why we've not seen any with black stripes on them?), lots of hickory nuts and acorns for the collecting.

Bird Notes: Our Dark-Eyed Juncos have returned!! Oh, happy day! The turkey family which through the warmer seasons stays abroad is now starting to frequent our backyard looking for food.

"The earth has music for those who will listen."
~ William Shakespeare

"I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in."
~ George Washington Carver

"Reading about nature is fine, but if a person walks in the woods and listens carefully, he can learn more than what is in books, for they speak with the voice of God."
~ George Washington Carver

"Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty."
~John Ruskin

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Scripture Notes

For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. ~ Romans 1:20

But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish of the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? ~ Job 12:7-9

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Island of the Blue Dolphins
by Scott O'Dell

Recent Posts

• Nature's Paintbox: Autumn Tempera Paints, Poetry, Vivaldi
• Simple Backyard Nature - Imagination Play
• Wondrous Wind ~ Study, Day 5
• An Autumn Sky
• Wondrous Wind ~ Study, Days 3 and 4

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Nature Study Files

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Nature Links

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Nature Identification Posts

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Kentucky Nature Identification Websites

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Nature Projects We've Done

• Homemade Hummingbird Nectar
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• Bagel Bird Feeders
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• Nature Prints in Clay
• Nesting Materials Bag
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• Our Nature Table
• Mushroom Spore Prints
• Woodland Fairy House
• Nature Art ~ Blueberry Painting
• Nature Craft ~ Wind Wands

Nature Studies

• Clouds Unit Study
• Dandy Dandelions Study
• Mushroom Study
• From Eggs, to Tadpoles, to Toads
• Forest Fires Unit Study
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Simple Backyard Nature Ideas

• We Love Mud
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• Can You Hear It?
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Art and Music

• Picture Study - Creative Writing Activity
• Nature Walk, 5 Elements of Shape, Vivaldi
• Monet Impressionism ~ Vivaldi
• Watercolor Project ~ Vivaldi
• Mary Cassatt ~ Tempera Monoprint
• Nature's Paintbox: Autumn Tempera Paints
~ Poetry and Vivaldi
• Nature's Paintbox: Summer Watercolors
~ O'Keeffe and Vivaldi
• Nature's Painbox: Spring Pastels ~ Stravinsky

Our Educational Philosophy

"Education is an Atmosphere, a Discipline, a Life."
~ Charlotte Mason

• Who Was Charlotte Mason?
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Nature Study is Education!

• Precious Moments in God's Creation
• Can Nature Teach?
• Carving Out Time for Nature Study

Quotable
"Years hence, when the children are old enough to understand that science itself is in a sense sacred and demands some sacrifices, all the 'common information' they have been gathering until then, and the habits of observation they have acquired, will form a capital groundwork for a scientific education. In the mean- time, let them consider the lilies of the field and the fowls of the air." --Charlotte Mason, Vol.1, p. 63